The invention relates to an electric shaving apparatus having a housing, a shaving head which is freely pivotable with respect to the housing between a first and a second position and which comprises at least one upper cutter and at least one lower cutter adapted to cooperate with said upper cutter, a drive element, coupled to the lower cutter for driving the lower cutter, a trimmer which can be set from a rest position into an operating position, in which the trimmer is drivable by the motor, and vice versa, the shaving head being pivoted out of a central position, situated between the first and the second position, when the trimmer is set into its operating position.
Such a shaving apparatus is known from EP-B1-0 302 268 to which corresponds substantially with U.S. Pat. No. 4,930,217 the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference. In the operating position of the trimmer of said shaving apparatus both the trimmer for cutting long hairs and the lower cutter for cutting short hairs are driven in order to obtain a combined cutting system. However, in practice, it appears that simultaneous driving of the trimmer and the lower cutter demands a comparatively high motor power, which adversely affects the performance of the trimmer. This is of particular importance in battery-powered shavers.
It is an object of the invention to improve the shaving apparatus of the type defined in the opening paragraph in such a manner that more power is available for driving the trimmer.
To this end, the shaving apparatus in accordance with the invention is characterized in that the shaving head has been pivoted into a locking position when the trimmer is in its operating position, which locking position is situated further away from the central position than said first or second position and in which locking position the drive element is disengaged from the lower cutter.
This means that the lower cutter of the shaving head is not driven when the trimmer is in its operating position, so that substantially all the available motor power is used for driving the trimmer.
A preferred embodiment of such a shaving apparatus is characterized in that the lower cutter has a recess which is oriented transversely to the driving direction of the lower cutter, in which recess the driving element is disposed, which recess has a widened portion at one end, in which widened portion the drive element is disposed when the shaving head is in its locking position and in which position the drive element moves freely in the widened portion of the recess without driving the lower cutter.